TotalEnergies chief says oil major will consider moving main listing to New York

Dow Jones04-26

MW TotalEnergies chief says oil major will consider moving main listing to New York

By Steve Goldstein

The chief executive of French oil giant TotalEnergies said it will consider moving its primary stock market listing to New York, where energy rivals command higher valuations.

"We are facing a situation where European shareholders, either they sell or maintain, and U.S. shareholders are buying," TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "So what is most convenient for U.S. shareholders? Do they prefer to have the shares being primarily listed in New York or in Europe? I think when you ask the question, you have the answer."

Shell $(SHEL)$ CEO Wael Sawan has made similar remarks about the possibility of moving its primary listing to the U.S.

Data compiled by FactSet shows the European integrated oil companies are valued less than their American rivals.

   Name               Ticker   P/E NTM  EV/EBITDA NTM  Production per day 
   Exxon Mobil        XOM      12.8x    5.9x           4,352.13 
   Saudi Arabian Oil  SA:2222  16.3x    7.7x           12,866.68 
   Chevron            CVX      12.3x    5.0x           3,601.40 
   PetroChina H       HK:857   7.4x     3.7x           - 
   Shell              SHEL     9.1x     3.5x           2,803.83 
   TotalEnergies      TTE      8.0x     3.3x           2,455.55 
   BP                 BP       7.8x     3.0x           2,353.54 
   Petroleo Bras Pfd  PBR      4.6x     2.5x           3,000.00 
   Average            9.8x     4.3x           4,490.45 
   Data: FactSet

It's not certain that moving to the U.S. would instantly boost its valuation though. Analysts at Citi point out TotalEnergies's valuation discount may be down to its "over-earning" in refining.

TotalEnergies (FR:TTE) $(TTE)$ on Friday reported a 3% rise in first-quarter net income to EUR5.72 billion, while adjusted for items including selling part of its retail network in Belgium and Luxembourg and all of its network in the Netherlands, profit fell 22% to EUR5.11 billion, which the company attributed to softening gas prices and refining margins.

Production fell 2%, hit by Canadian oil sands disposals as well as natural decline of fields, which offset project ramp-ups in Brazil, Oman, Norway and Azerbaijan.

It reiterated its capital expenditure plan of $17 billion to $18 billion and announced $2 billion of stock buybacks for the second quarter.

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the results were slightly ahead of consensus while the production guidance for the second quarter was slightly soft.

-Steve Goldstein

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April 26, 2024 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)

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TotalEnergies chief says oil major will consider moving main listing to New York

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